Community Days this weekend
Buxton’s annual summer festival combines the two-day Buxton Community Days on Friday, July 18, and Saturday, July 19, with the annual fair and lawn party of the Dorcas Society of Hollis and Buxton on that Saturday.
The festival happens at historic Tory Hill, intersection of routes 202 and 112, in Buxton. Admission is free. The event features food, fun, entertainment and fireworks.
The festival gets under way at 5 p.m. on July 18 at Weymouth Park with the opening of booths and amusement rides. Celebration DJ, from 5-8 p.m., features dancing and a sing-along.
At 6:30 p.m., the Buxton Fire Department takes on their Hollis counterparts in the annual softball game.
A full day on Saturday kicks off with the Hollis Lions Club pancake breakfast at 7 a.m. under a tent at Weymouth Park. A road race starts at 8 a.m.
The parade at 10:30 a.m. includes antique vehicles, monster trucks, race cars, youth groups, churches and local clubs. Floats include the Buxton-Hollis Historical Society and Buxton Garden Club. A throng is expected to pack the parade route along Route 112.
Festival demonstrations include those sponsored by Buxton police and fire departments. Buxton police are sponsoring a dunk tank. Last year’s dunk tank raised $150 for Buxton’s Keep the Heat On program, providing assistance for the elderly.
Firefighters will demonstrate the jaws of life, an instrument utilized in freeing victims trapped in vehicles at accidents.
The Saturday entertainment lineup includes Saco River Jazz Ensemble at 12:30 p.m.; Bob Costigan, 2:30 p.m.; and Nouveau Rednecks, a Buxton group, at 6 p.m. Activities include horseshoes and for kids pony rides.
On the lawn at Tory Hill Church, the Hollis-Buxton Dorcas Society, a charitable group, hosts its annual fair and lawn party from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on July 19.
In connection with the fair, Richard “Sandy” and Beverly Atkinson annually host an open house in the barn at their historic Royal Brewster mansion. A special treat this year will be “Layers of History,” a vintage fashion show at 1 p.m. on a stage in the barn.
Catherine Lamson of Buxton will participate in the show that she described this week as “a short production to show how Victorian women dressed – from pantaloons out.”
The Dorcas Society, which sponsors a blueberry pie baking contest, serves lunch under a tent on the church lawn. Vendors’ booths will carry a variety of crafts, jewelry and information about local products and services.
The Buxton-Hollis Historical Society will staff a booth again at the fair and will have Buxton documentary DVDs and books available.
Across the road from the church, a Revolutionary War encampment takes place in Helen Bruce Park. Re-enactors fire muskets, and a big cannon is periodically touched off.
Fireworks, sponsored by the Narragansett No. 1 Foundation, cap the festival at 9:30 p.m.
Historical society lunch social
An old-fashioned box lunch social at noon on Saturday, July 26, will be held in the barn at the historic Brewster mansion, 8 Brewster Place (intersection of routes 112 and 202), in Buxton.
The event is an annual Buxton-Hollis Historical Society fundraiser. Parking is on Woodman Road and Route 112.
Men and women are invited to take a decorated container filled with a “tempting lunch” for two with a written description of the contents, according to a printed invitation. Mansion owner Beverly Atkinson said Bruce Buxton, appraiser of fine art and antiques, will auction the lunches.
“He’s humorous and makes the whole thing,” Atkinson said. “He’s very entertaining.”
Atkinson said the barn has been set with tables and decorations for the social. Several door prizes include an autographed copy of “The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832” by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Alan Taylor.
Atkinson said Taylor, who grew up in Buxton, is a 1973 graduate of Bonny Eagle High School.
The box lunch social will be held rain or shine. It is open to the public and those planning to attend should call Atkinson at 929-6495.
USM dean’s list
Three part time students from Buxton have been named to the University of Southern Maine dean’s list for the 2013-2014 academic year.
They are Kathryn Elizabeth Benedetto, Anastasia Marie Skibicki, and Oliver Walter Solmitz.
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